Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy WILLIAM MANSELL, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The novel coronavirus has now killed more than 753,000 people worldwide.
Over 20.9 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
The United States is the worst-affected country in the world, with more than 5.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 167,242 deaths.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
5:33 a.m.: CDC: Up to 200,000 deaths by Labor Day
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted in its latest forecast that the U.S. coronavirus death toll could reach 200,000 by Labor Day as children across the country head back to school.
Its national ensemble forecast predicts that 4,200 to 10,600 new COVID-19 deaths will be reported for the week ending on Sept. 5 and that 180,000 to 200,000 total COVID-19 deaths will be reported by that date.
Last month, the CDC predicted there would be between 160,000 and 175,000 deaths by Aug. 15. As of Aug. 13, with more than 1,000 deaths a day every day for more than two weeks, there have been 167,097 deaths.
The U.S. surpassed 100,000 COVID-19 deaths on May 27.
New cases continue to decrease across the country week-over-week, but the rate of new deaths have increased over the same period, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency memo obtained by ABC News.
There were 7,517 deaths recorded from Aug. 5 to 12, which marked a 2.3% increase in new deaths compared with the previous week. The national test-positivity rate remains at 6.5%.
ABC News analyzed state coronavirus trends across all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and found there were increases in cases in two states (Hawaii and Illinois) and Puerto Rico, increases in the daily rate of positivity in 15 states plus D.C., increases in hospitalizations in 19 states, and increases in daily deaths in 23 states, D.C, and Puerto Rico.
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